Redout, my review... or what the hell are you all waiting to play this game?

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Redout, my review... or what the hell are you all waiting to play this game?

So, Redout... some say it's inspired by WipEout, others F-Zero. It's definitely not like WipEout, maybe closer to F-Zero but I have played only the original one. At the end I don't know where the inspiration came from but that's the hell of an inspiration.

If like me you don't have a descent PC, you can play Redout on PS4 since more or less 1 month... but I don't see you in the rankings so you don't, and that's bad!

On the graphic part, it's stunning. It's not like WipEout is, with a lot of details, but in the craziness of the environments and the effects you have on the screen... and the speed. So yes, on standard PS4, the game runs like 40-50 fps. It has not been an issue for me at all, don't avoid the game just for this purpose.
You get 7 environments, from classic/not too hard to races in outerspace in zero-g that will require a really good control of the ship.
Each environment has it's visual entity, some have special features : race under water, in tubes (ok, that's the thing I hate... the tubes), the zero-g, etc. So the gameplay is not always the same.
Each environment has 5 tracks, and most of them are not short.

And about the gameplay, it's really different from WipEout :
- left stick is used only for steering;
- right stick is used for strafing (not airbrakes) and pitching (and if you thought that pitching was important in WipEout, think again );
- right trigger for thrust (yeah, I never release this one);
- left trigger for brakes (I really use this one);
- left shoulder for boost (think like hyperthrust in W3O);
- right shoulder/X for active power up (remapped on R3 via the PS4 options for me, so that I never have to let go the right stick).

You have more traditional setups (everything on left stick and strafing on triggers) but I gave a chance to default setup and got used to it.

The ships don't steer as much as you can be used in WipEout, you really have to anticipate turns to avoid bouncing to the wall. Oh wait? bouncing to the wall is actually a very efficient way to takes turns... but... you have an energy shield friends... so you can't do that forever. Actually, you can do that very few since your energy decreases very fast! The energy can auto recover, but it's a long process of avoiding walls... or the ground. Yes, the ground! The tracks are everything but flat, there are horizontal and vertical loopings everywhere... and you have to noze up/down not the hit the ground. And during jumps you have to pitch up... or down... Yeah, jumps, and some are hard/crazy/hell I can shorcut.

There's more than the energy bar, you have a boost bar that can be used for hyperthrust or some active powerups. It refills itself when not used.

Still on the gameplay side, the game provides powerups, but you don't pick them on the track, you have to assign them to your ship before the race. There are 2 categories of powerups : active and passive.
There are 6 of each, and you can equip 1 active and 1 passive.
Most useful passives to me are :
- AP, that gives you extra speed and enhanced boost;
- OET, that make the boost bar refill a lot faster (so more boost);
- SE, dramatically increase your speed if you are just behind an opponent;
- MS, to increase the handling of the ship.

Active powerups are using the boost bar and are triggered manually. Most useful :
- BOOST !!!!! Massive boost that can longs for a lot, like in WO 2097;
- Repair Drone ... yeah I still need it most of the time, except on Neptune environment;
... some other I don't use, like EMP or Leach beam.

The magic combo being AP+BOOST... but currently I can't survive on most of tracks with that.

You have a campain, with more than 100 events. That's a lot, it takes time to do it... especially that some events are pretty hard.
It's not redundant, remember you have 35 tracks and different kinds of events :
- classic race VS the AI (AI performance is very variable, sometimes it's easy to win, sometimes really not);
- pure racing : same ... but no power ups;
- arena race : race but no respawn... you die, you lost;
- last man standing : last one gets eliminated every lap, sometimes respawn is disabled;
- speed lap : you all know what it means
- speed lap... sort of : you have a speed target and you get extra time when you as long as you are faster than the target. This can lead to a final negative time ;
- instagib : speed lap again... but you lose a massive amount of energy for every hit you take;
- survival : I don't like it that much... you have a countdown starting at 1 minute and you get some extra time each time you reach a checkpoint... but there are mines on the track
- score : long event, like between 10 and 15 laps, where you have to earn more points than the contender. Mainly, staying in the first place attributes you more points, as well as laps without respawn and also each time you beat your fastest lap during the race you win some points... so there is a strategy here : you can boost like crazy the first laps to get first, but it's hard to do a better lap later...
- tournament
- boss race : that's THE brigthest idea you can have in this game... all the tracks from an environment are covered in 1 lap, that leads to the most epic races you can imagine! I love it!

Of course you have a kind of racebox to do the event you want on the track you want.

Quick talk about the music. I like them, but that's a matter of taste. I like them a LOT better than Omega ones... The issue I have is that the music are associated to an environment. Neptune as only one music so if you pratice on Neptune tracks you'll always have the same music (fortunately it's the most epic music in racing game history ).

Now the online... well it's empty . And that's sad. I joined the discord of Redout and the guys playing the game on PC have a small community that races every friday, like in Avalon days of Wipeout. You can find recordings of this guys with crazy skills having fun in the 12 contenders races.
Unfortunately, on PS4, you're limited to 6 contenders per lobby... but it's deadly empty

Is it the perfect game?
No of course!
The collisions with the other ships are really bad, and I already discussed about the music you cannot set to random or the empty online.

This game is great for someone that can enjoy an offline career, unlocking ships and powerups... and also ready to face the difficulty. Even if I like the challenge proposed from the career, I'm afraid it scared people not used to this kind of game. I mean reaching gold on some SL is REALLY more difficult than than any gold SL in Elite in WipEout. When you know you have 'hidden' platinum medals you can earn... wow.

At the end, I prepared two videos (keep in mind I just finished the career, I'm far from being a great pilot) :

A pure race (no powerups) on a track where there is one of the rare spots I used the drifting ability. Look at the very first jump, I steer on right and strafe on left to make the ship turn to the right in the air, and when the alignment is correct, I then strafe in right too.

Finally, the boss race on Neptune... because it's my favorite event in the whole game (first tries are crazy hard, believe me). I missed a shortcut... but still a lap without respawn on this one is not bad at all.

Well, I was reluctant to buy the game because of this. I catched a guy on twitch playing on standard PS4 and he told me he had no noticeable issue with the framerate. The guy is ranked 5th worldwide on Fury speedrun, so not a casual player...
And since I played the entire career and I suspect you didn't play the game, my humble opinion saying it's not a reason to avoid the game is pretty reliable
Still, for guys having a PC or a PS4pro, you'll have the 60fps. I recommend playing on PC if you have the choice, you'll have a nice community for online sessions, and additional DLC... and you can select the language (yeah, French translation is not fantastic...).

I forgot to mention you have classes, from 1 to 4. Like Venom -> Phantom, but the gap not being that big (it's not slow, unlike WO for everything below Rapier).

Also, there's no gimmick like not taking the best racing line to search for a little bump and then do sideshift to get some altitude to perform BR that can makes you can chain blablabla... it's just racing.
So, if you like the acrobatics stuffs, you'll miss it.
If like me you have never been a fan of BRs and SS, Redout is definitely a nice reminder of WO2-3 racing feelings.